RESURRECTION
by A. E. van Vogt
THE GREAT ship poised a quarter of a mile above one of
the cities. Below was a cosmic desolation. As he floated
down in his energy bubble, Enash saw that the buildings
were crumbling with age.
"No signs of war damage!" "The bodiless voice touched his
ears momentarily. Enash turned it out.
On the ground he collapsed his bubble. He found
himself in a walled enclosure overgrown with weeds. Several
skeletons lay in the tail grass beside the rakish building.
They were of long, two-legged, two-armed beings with skulls
in each case mounted at the end of a thin spine. The skele-
tons, all of adults, seemed in excellent preservation, but when
he bent down and touched one, a whole section of it crum-
bled into a fine powder. As he straightened, he saw that
Yoal was floating down nearby. Enash waited until the his-
torian had stepped out of his bubble, then he said:
"Do you think we ought to use our method of reviving the
long dead?"
Yoal was thoughtful. "I have been asking questions of the
various people who have landed, and there is something
wrong here. This planet has no surviving life, not even in-
sect life. We'll have to find out what happened before we
risk any colonization."
Enash said nothing. A soft wind was blowing. It rustled
through a clump of trees nearby. He motioned towards the
trees. Yoal nodded and said, "Yes, the plant life }ias not
been harmed, but plants after all are not affected in the
same way as the active life forms."
There was an interruption. A voice spoke from Yoal's re-
ceiver: "A museum has 'been found at approximately the
centre of the city. A red light has been fixed on the roof."
Enash said, "I'll go with you, Yoal. "There might be
skeletons of animals and of the intelligent being in various
stages of his evolution. You didn't answer my question.
Are you going to revive these things?"
Yoal said slowly, "I intend to discuss the matter with
the council, but I think there is no doubt. We must know
the cause of this disaster." He waved one sucker vaguely
to take in half the compass. He added as an afterthought,
"We shall proceed cautiously, of course, beginning with an
obviously early development. The absence of the skeletons
of children indicates that the race had developed personal
immortality."
The council came to look at the exhibits. It was, Enash
knew, a formal preliminary only. The decision was made.
There would be revivals. It was more than that. They
were curious. Space was vast, the journeys through it long and
lonely, landing always a stimulating experience, with its
prospect of new life forms to be seen and studied.
The museum looked ordinary. High-domed ceilings, vast
rooms. Plastic models of strange beasts, many artifactstoo
many to see and comprehend in so short a time. The life
span of a race was imprisoned here in a progressive array
of relics. Enash looked with the others, and was glad when
they came to the line of skeletons and preserved bodies.
He seated himself behind the energy screen, and watched
the biological experts take a preserved body out of a stone
sarcophagus. It was wrapped in windings of cloth, many of
them. The experts did not bother to unravel the rotted
material. Their forceps reached through, pinched a piece of
skullthat was the accepted procedure. Any part of the
skeleton could be used, but the most perfect revivals, the
most complete reconstructions resulted when a certain section
of the skull was used.
Hamar, the chief biologist, explained the choice of body.
"The chemicals used to preserve this mummy show a sketchy
knowledge of chemistry. The carvings on the sarcophagus
indicate a crude and unmechanical culture. In such a civili-
zation there would not be much development of the potential-
ities of the nervous system. Our speech experts have been
analysing the recorded voice mechanism which is a part of
each exhibit, and though many languages are involved
evidence that the ancient language spoken at the time the body
was alive has been reproducedthey found no difficulty in
translating the meanings. They have now adapted our uni-
versal speech machine, so that anyone who wishes to need
only speak into his communicator, and so will have his words
translated into the language of the revived person. The re-
verse, naturally, is also true. Ah, I see we are ready for
the first body."
Enash watched intently with the others as the lid was
clamped down on the plastic reconstructor, and the growth
processes were started. He could feel himself becoming tense.
For there was nothing haphazard about what was happen-
ing. In a few minutes a full-grown ancient inhabitant of this
planet would sit up and stare at them. The science involved
was simple and always fully effective. ~
.... Out of the shadows of smallness, life grows. The
level of beginning and ending, of life andnot life; in that
dim region matter oscillates easily between old and new
habits. The habit of organic, or the habit of inorganic.
Electrons do not have life and un-life values. Atoms form
into molecules, there is a step in the process, one tiny step,
that is of lifeif life begins at all. One step, and then dark-
ness. Or aliveness.
A stone or a living cell. A grain of gold or a blade of
grass, the sands of the sea or the equally numerous ani-
malcules inhabiting the endless fishy watersthe difference is
there in the twilight zone of matter. Each living cell has in it
the whole form. The crab grows a new leg when the old
one is torn from its flesh. Both ends of the planarian worm
elongate, and soon there are two worms, two identities, two
digestive systems each as greedy as the original, each a
whole, unwounded, unharmed by its experience. Each cell
can be the whole. Each cell remembers in detail so intricate
that no totality of words could ever descibe the completeness
achieved.
Butparadoxmemory is not organic. An ordinary wax
record remembers sounds. A wire recorder easily gives up a
duplicate of the voice that spoke into it years before. Mem-
ory is a physiological impression, a mark on matter, a
change in the shape of a molecule, so that when a reaction
is desired the shape emits the same rhythm of response.
Out of the mummy's skull had come the multi-quadrillion
memory shapes from which a response was now being
evoked. As ever, the memory held true.
A man biinked, and opened his eyes.
"It is true, then," he said aloud, and the words were
translated into the Ganae tongue as he spoke them. "Death
is merely an opening into another lifebut where are my
attendants?" At the end, his voice took on a complaining
tone.
He sat up, and climbed out of the case, which had auto-
matically opened as he came to life. He saw his captors. He
froze, but only for a moment. He had a pride and a very
special arrogant courage, which served him now. Reluctantly,
he sank to his knees and made obeisance, but doubt must have
been strong in him. "Am I in the presence of the gods of
Egypt?" He climbed to his feet. "What nonsense is this? I
do not bow to nameless demons."
Captain Gorsid said, "Kill him!"
The two-legged monster dissolved, writhing in the beam of
a ray gun.
The second revived man stood up, pale, and trembled
with fear. "My God, I swear I won't touch the stuff again.
Talk about pink elephants"
Yoal was curious. "To what stuff do you refer, revived
one?"
"The old hooch, the poison in the hip pocket flask, the juice
they gave me at that speak . . . my lordie!"
Captain Gorsid looked questioningly at Yoal, "Need we
linger?"
Yoal hesitated. "I am curious." He addressed the man. "If
I were to tell you that we were visitors from another star,
what would be your reaction?"
The man stared at him. He was obviously puzzled, but
the fear was stronger. "Now, look," he said, "I was driving
along, minding my own business. I admit I'd had a shot or
two too many, but it's the liquor they serve these days. I
swear I didn't see the other carand if this is some new idea
of punishing people who drink and drive, well, you've won. I
won't touch another drop as long as I live, so help me."
Yoal said, "He drives a 'car' and thinks nothing of it. Yet
we saw no cars. They didn't even bother to preserve them
in the museums."
Enash noticed that everyone waited for everyone else to
comment. He stirred as he realized the circle of silence
would be complete unless he spoke. He said, "Ask him to
describe the car. How does it work?"
"Now, you're talking," said the man. "Bring on your line
of chalk, and I'll walk it, and ask any questions you please.
I may be so tight that I can't see straight, but I can always
drive. How does it work? You just put her in gear, and step
on the gas."
"Gas," said engineering officer Veed. "The internal com-
bustion engine. That places him."
Captain Gorsid motioned to the guard with the ray gun.
The third man sat up, and looked at them thoughtfully.
"From the stars?" he said finally. "Have you a system, or
was it blind chance?"
The Ganae councillors in that domed room stirred uneasily
in their curved chairs. Enash caught Yoal's eye on him. "The
shock in the historian's eye alarmed the meteorologist. He
thought: "The two-legged one's adjustment to a new situation,
his grasp of realities, was unnormally rapid. No Ganae could
have equalled the swiftness of the reaction."
Hamar, the chief biologist, said, "Speed of thought is not
necessarily a sign of superiority. The slow, careful thinker has
his place in the hierarchy of intellect."
But Enash found himself thinking, it was not the speed;
it was the accuracy of the response. He tried to imagine him-
self being revived from the dead, and understanding instantly
the meaning of the presence of aliens from the stars. He
couldn't have done it.
He forgot his thought, for the man was out of the case. As
Enash watched with the others, he walked briskly over to the
window and looked out. One glance, and then he turned
back.
"Is it all like this?" he asked.
Once again, the speed of his understanding caused a sensa-
tion. It was Yoal who finally replied.
"Yes. Desolation. Death. Ruin. Have you any ideas as to
what happened?"
The man came back and stood in front of the energy
screen that guarded the Ganae. "May I look over the mu-
seum? I have to estimate what age I am in. We had certain
possibilities of destruction when I was last alive, but which
one was realized depends on the time elapsed."
The councillors looked at Captain Gorsid, who hesitated;
then, "Watch him," he said to the guard with the ray gun. He
faced the man. "We understand your aspirations fully. You
would like to seize control of this situation and ensure your
own safety. Let me reassure you. Make no false moves,
and all will be well."
Whether or not the man believed the lie, he gave no sign.
Nor did he show by a glance or a movement that he had seen
the scarred floor where the ray gun had burned his two
predecessors into nothingness. He walked curiously to the
nearest doorway, studied the other guard who waited there
for him, and then, gingerly, stepped through. The first guard
followed him, then came the mobile energy screen, and finally,
~ trailing one another, the councillors.
Enash was the third to pass through the doorway. The
_room contained skeletons and plastic models of animals. The
room beyond that was what, for want of a better term, Enash
called a culture room. It contained the artifacts from a single
period of civilization. It looked very advanced. He had ex-
amined some of the machines when they first passed through
,it,, and had thought: Atomic energy. He was not alone in his
recognition. From behind him. Captain Gorsid said to the
man:
"You are forbidden to touch anything. A false move will be
the signal for the guards to fire."
The man stood at ease in the centre of the room. In spite
of a curious anxiety, Enash had to admire his calmness. He
must have known what his fate would be, but he stood there
thoughtfully, and said finally, deliberately, "I do not need to
go any farther. Perhaps you will be able to judge better than I
of the time that has elapsed since I was born and these ma-
chines were built. I see over there an instrument which, ac-
cording to the sign above it, counts atoms when they explode.
As soon as the proper number have exploded it shuts off the
power automatically, and for just the right length of time to
prevent a chain explosion. In my time we had a thousand
crude devices for limiting the size of an atomic reaction, but
it required two thousand years to develop those devices from
the early beginnings of atomic energy. Can you make a com-
parison?"
The councillors glanced at Veed. The engineering officer
hesitated. At last, reluctantly, he said, "Nine thousand years
ago we had a thousand methods of limiting atomic explosions."
He paused, then even more slowly, "I have never heard of an
instrument that counts out atoms for such a purpose."
"And yet," murmured Shuri, the astronomer, breathlessly,
"the race was destroyed."
There was silence. It ended as Gorsid said to the nearest
guard, "Kill the monster!"
But it was the guard who went down, bursting into flame.
Not just one guard, but the guards! Simultaneously down,
burning with a blue flame. The flame licked at the screen,
recoiled, and licked more furiously, recoiled and burned
brighter. Through a haze of fire, Enash saw that the man
had retreated to the far door, and that the machine that
counted atoms was glowing with a blue intensity.
Captain Gorsid shouted into his communicator, "Guard all
exits with ray guns. Spaceships stand by to kill alien with
heavy guns."
Somebody said, "Mental control. Some kind of mental con-
trol. What have we run into?"
They were retreating. The blue flame was at the ceiling,
struggling to break through the screen. Enash had a last
glimpse of the machine. It must still be counting atoms, for it
was a hellish blue. Enash raced with the others to the room
where the man had been resurrected. There, another energy
screen crashed to their rescue. Safe now, they retreated into
their separate bubbles and whisked through outer doors and
up to the ship. As the great ship soared, an atomic bomb
hurtled down from it. The mushroom of flame blotted out the
museum and the city below.
"But we still don't know why the race died," Yoal whis-
pered into Enash's ear, after the thunder had died from the
heavens behind them.
The pale yellow sun crept over the horizon on the third
morning after the bomb was dropped, the eighth day since the
landing. Enash floated with the others down on a new city.
He had come to argue against any further revival.
"As a meteorologist," he said, "I pronounce this planet safe
for Ganae colonization. I cannot see the need tor taking any
risks. This race has discovered the secrets of its nervous sys-
tem, and we cannot afford"
He was interrupted. Hamar, the biologist, said dryly, "If
they knew so much why didn't they migrate to other star
systems and save themselves?"
"I will concede," said Enash, "that very possibly they had
not discovered our system of locating stars with planetary
families." He looked earnestly around the circle of his friends.
"We have agreed that was a unique accidental discovery.
We were lucky, not clever."
He saw by the expressions on their faces that they were
mentally refuting his arguments. He felt a helpless sense
of imminent catastrophe. For he could see that picture of a
great race facing death. It must have come swiftly, but not so
swiftly that they didn't know about it. There were too many
skeletons in the open, lying in the gardens of magnificent
homes, as if each man and his wife had come out to wait for
the doom of his kind. He tried to picture it for the council, thtit
last day long, long ago, when a race had calmly met its end-
ing. But his visualization failed somehow, for the others shifted
impatiently in the seats that had been set up behind the series
of energy screens, and Captain Gorsid said, "Exactly what
aroused this intense emotional reaction in you, Enash?"
The question gave Enash pause. He hadn't thought of it as
emotional. He hadn't realized the nature of his obsession, so
subtly had it stolen upon him. Abruptly now, he realized.
"It was the third one," he said slowly. "I saw him through
the haze of energy fire, and he was standing there in the dis-
~ tant doorway watching us curiously, just before we turned to
run. His bravery, his calm, the skilful way he had duped us
it all added up."
"Added up to his death!" said Hamar. And everybody
laughed.
"Come now, Enash," said Vice-captain Mayad good-
humouredly, "you're not going to pretend that this race is
braver than our own, or that, with all the precautions we
have now taken, we need fear one man?"
Enash was silent, feeling foolish. The discovery that he had
had an emotional obsession abashed him. He did not
want to appear unreasonable. He made a final protest, "I
merely wish to point out," he said doggedly, "that this desire
to discover what happened to a dead race does not seem abso-
lutely essential to me."
Captain Gorsid waved at the biologist, "Proceed," he said,
"with the revival."
To Enash, he said, "Do we dare return to Gana, and
recommend mass migrationsand then admit that we did not
actually complete our investigations here? It's impossible, my
friend."
It was the old argument, but reluctantly now Enash ad-
mitted there was something to be said for that point of view.
He forgot that, for the fourth man was stirring.
The man sat up. And vanished.
There was a blank, horrified silence. Then Captain Gor-
sid said harshly, "He can't get out of there. We know that.
He's in there somewhere."
All around Enash, the Ganae were out of their chairs, peer-
ing into the energy shell. The guards stood with ray guns held
limply in their suckers. Out of the comer of his eye, he saw
one of the protective screen technicians beckon to Veed,
who went over. He came back grim. He said, "I'm told the
needles jumped ten points when he first disappeared. That's
on the nucleome level."
"By ancient Ganae!" Shun whispered. "We've run into
what we've always feared."
Gorsid was shouting into the communicator. "Destroy all the
locators on the ship. Destroy them, do you hear!"
He turned with glaring eyes. "Shuri," he bellowed. "They
don't seem to understand. Tell those subordinates of your to
act. All locators and reconstructors must be destroyed."
"Hurry, hurry!" said Shuri weakly.
When that was done they breathed more easily. There were
grim smiles and a tensed satisfaction. "At least," said Vice-
captain Mayad. "he cannot now ever discover Gana. Our great
system of locating suns with planets remains our secret. There
can be no retaliation for" He stopped, said slowly,
"What am I talking about? We haven't done anything. We've
not responsible for the disaster that has befallen the inhabi-
tants of this planet."
But Enash knew what he had meant. The guilt feelings
came to the surface at such moments as thisthe ghosts of
all the races destroyed by the Ganae, the remorseless will
that had been in them, when they first landed, to annihilate
whatever was here. The dark abyss of voiceless hate and ter-
ror that lay behind them; the days on end when they had
mercilessly poured poisonous radiation down upon the unsus-
pecting inhabitants of peaceful planetsall that had been in
Mayad's words.
"I still refuse to believe be has escaped." That was Captain
Gorsid. "He's in there. He's waiting for us to take down our
screens, so he can escape. Well, we won't do it."
There was silence again as they stared expectantly into the
emptiness of the energy shell. The reconstructor rested on
metal supports, a glittering affair. But there 'was nothing else.
Not a flicker of unnatural light or shade. The yellow rays of
the sun bathed the open spaces with a brilliance that left no
room for concealment.
"Guards," said Gorsid, "destroy the reconstructor. I thought
he might come back to examine it, but we can't take a chance
on that."
It burned with a white fury. And Enash, who had hoped
somehow that the deadly energy would force the two-legged
thing into the open, felt his hopes sag within him.
"But where can he have gone?" Yoal whispered.
Enash turned to discuss the matter. In the act of swinging
around, he saw that the monster was standing under a tree a
score of feet to one side, watching them. He must have ar-
rived at that moment, for there was a collective gasp from the
councillors. Everybody drew back. One of the screen techni-
cians, using great presence of mind, jerked up an energy
-screen between the Ganae and the monster. The creature
came forward slowly. He was slim of build, he held his head
well back. His eyes shone as from an inner fire.
He stopped as he came to the screen, reached out and
touched it with his fingers. It flared, blurred with changing
colours. The colours grew brighter, and extended in an intri-
cate pattern all the way from his head to the ground. The
blur cleared. The pattern faded into invisibility. The man was
through the screen.
He laughed, a soft curious sound; then sobered. "When I
first awakened," he said, "I was curious about the situation.
The question was, what should I do with you?"
The words had a fateful ring to Enash on the still morning
air of that planet of the dead. A voice broke the silence, a
voice so strained and unnatural that a moment passed before
he recognized it as belonging to Captain Gorsid.
"Kill him!"
When the blasters ceased their effort, the unkillable thing
remained standing. He walked slowly forward until he was
only a half dozen feet from the nearest Ganae. Enash had a
position well to the rear. The man said slowly:
"Two courses suggest themselves, one based on gratitude
for reviving me, the other based on reality. I know you for
what you are. Yes, know youand that is unfortunate. It is
hard to feel merciful. To begin with," he went on, "let us
suppose you surrender the secret of the locator. Naturally,
now that a system exists, we shall never again be caught as we
were."
Enash had been intent, his mind so alive with the potenti-
alities of the disaster that was here that it seemed impossible
that he could think of anything else. And yet, a part of his
attention was stirred now. "What did happen?" he asked.
The man changed colour. The emotions of that far day thick-
ened his voice. "A nucleonic storm. It swept in from outer
space. It brushed this edge of our galaxy. It was about nine-
ty light-years in diameter, beyond the farthest limit of our
power. There was no escape from it. We had dispensed with
spaceships, and had no time to construct any. Castor, the
only star with planets ever discovered by us, was also in the
path of the storm." He stopped. "The secret?" he said.
Around Enash, the councillors were breathing easier. The
fear of race destruction that had come to them was lifting.
Enash saw with pride that the first shock was over, and they
were not even afraid for themselves.
"Ah," said Yoal softly, "you don't know the secret. In spite
of all your great development, we alone can conquer the
galaxy." He looked at the others, smiling confidently. "Gentle-
men," he said, "our pride in a great Ganae achievement is
justified. I suggest we return to our ship. We have no further
business on this planet."
There was a confused moment while their bubbles formed,
when Enash wondered if the two-legged one would try to stop
their departure. But when he looked back, he saw that the
man was walking in a leisurely fashion along a street.
That was the memory Enash carried with him, as the ship
began to move. That and the fact that the three atomic
bombs they dropped, one after the other, failed to explode.
"We will not," said Captain Gorsid, "give up a planet as
easily as that. I propose another interview with the creature."
They were floating down again into the city, Enash and
Yoal and Veed and the commander. Captain Gorsid's voice
tuned in once more:
".. . As I visualize it"through the mist Enash could see
the transparent glint of the other three bubbles around him
"we jumped to conclusions about this creature, not justified
by the evidence. For instance, when he awakened, he vanished.
Why? Because he was afraid, of course. He wanted to size
up the situation. He didn't believe he was omnipotent."
It was sound logic. Enash found himself taking heart from
it. Suddenly, he was astonished that be had become panicky
so easily. He began to see the danger in a new light. Only
one man alive on a new planet. If they were determined
enough, colonists coud be moved in as if he did not exist.
It had been done before, he recalled. On several planets,
small groups of the original populations had survived the de-
stroying radiation, and taken refuge in remote areas. In al-
most every case, the new colonists gradually hunted them
down. In two instances, however, that Enash remembered,
native races were still holding small sections of their plan-
ets. In each case, it had been found impractical to destroy
them because it would have endangered the Ganae on the
planet. So the survivors were tolerated. One man would not
take up very much room.
When they found him, he was busily sweeping out the
lower floor of a small bungalow. He put the broom aside and
stepped on to the terrace outside. He had put on sandals,
and he wore a loose-fitting robe made of very shiny material.
He eyed them indolently but he said nothing.
It was Captain Gorsid who made the proposition. Enash had
to admire the story he told into the language machine. The
commander was very frank. That approach had been decided
on. He pointed out that the Ganae could not be expected to
revive the dead of this planet. Such altruism would be un-
natural considering that the ever-growing Ganae hordes had a
continual need for new worlds. Each vast new population
increment was a problem that could be solved by one method
only. In this instance, the colonists would gladly respect the
rights of the sole survivor of this world.
It was at this point that the man interrupted. "But what is
the purpose of this endless expansion?" He seemed genuinely
curious. "What will happen when you finally occupy every
planet in this galaxy?"
Captain Gorsid's puzzled eyes met Yoal's, then flashed to
Veed, then Enash. Enash shrugged his torso negatively, and
felt pity for the creature. The man didn't understand, pos-
sibly never could understand. It was the old story of two dif-
ferent viewpoints, the virile and the decadent, the race that
aspired to the stars and the race that declined the call of
destiny.
"Why not," urged the man, "control the breeding cham-
bers?"
"And have the government overthrown!" said Yoal.
He spoke tolerantly, and Enash saw that the others were
smiling at the man's naivete. He felt the intellectual gulf be-
tween them widening. The creature had no comprehension of
the natural life forces that were at work. The man spoke
again:
"Well, if you don't control them, we will control them for
you."
There was silence.
They began to stiffen. Enash felt it in himself, saw the signs
of it in the others. His gaze flicked from face to face, then
back to the creature in the doorway. Not for the first time,
Enash bad the thought that their enemy seemed helpless.
"Why," he decided, "I could put my suckers around him and
crush him."
He wondered if mental control of nucleonic, nuclear, and
gravitonic energies included the ability to defend oneself from
a macrocosmic attack. He had an idea it did. The exhibition
of power two hours before might have had limitations, but if
so, it was not apparent. Strength or weakness could make no
difference. The threat of threats had been made: "If you
don't controlwe will."
The words echoed in Enash's brain, and, as the meaning
penetrated deeper, his aloofness faded. He had always re-
garded himself as a spectator. Even when, earlier, he had ar-
gued against the revival, he had been aware of a detached part
of himself watching the scene rather than being a part of it.
He saw with a sharp clarity that that was why he had finally
yielded to the conviction of the others. Going back beyond
that to remoter days, he saw that he had never quite consid-
ered himself a participant in the seizure of the planets of other
races. He was the one who looked on, and thought of reality,
and speculated on a life that seemed to have no meaning. It
was meaningless no longer. He was caught by a tide of ir-
resistible emotion, and swept along. He felt himself sinking,
merging with the Ganae mass being. All the strength and all
the will of the race surged up in his veins.
He snarled, "Creature, if you have any hopes of reviving
your dead race, abandon them now."
The man looked at him, but said nothing. Enash rushed
on, "If you could destroy us, you would have done so already.
But the truth is that you operate within limitations. Our ship
is so built that no conceivable chain reaction could be started
in it. For every plate of potential unstable material in it there
is a counteracting plate, which prevents the development of a
critical pile. You might be able to set off -explosions in our
engines, but they, too, would be limited, and would merely
start the process for which they are intendedconfined in
their proper space."
He was aware of Yoal touching his arm. "Careful," warned
the historian. "Do not in your just anger give away vital in-
formation."
Enash shook off the restraining sucker. "Let us not be un-
realistic," he said harshly. "This thing has divined most of
our racial secrets, apparently merely by looking at our bodies.
We would be acting childishly if we assumed that he has not
already realized the possibilities of the situation."
"Eruishi" Captain Gorsid's voice was imperative.
As swiftly as it had come, Enash's rage subsided. He
stepped back. "Yes, commander."
"I think I know what you intended to say," said Captain
Gorsid. "I assure you ,1 am in full accord, but I believe also
that I, as the top Ganae official, should deliver the ultimatum."
He turned. His homy body towered above the man. "You
have made the unforgivable threat. You have told us, in effect,
that you will attempt to restrict the vaulting Ganae spirit."
"Not the spirit," said the man.
The commander ignored the interruption. "Accordingly, we
have no alternative. We are assuming that, given time to lo-
cate the materials and develop the tools, you might be able to
build a reconstructor. In our opinion it will be at least two
years before you can complete it, even if you know how. It is
an immensely intricate machine, not easily assembled by the
lone survivor of a race that gave up its machines millennia
before disaster struck.
"You did not have time to build a spaceship. We won't
give you time to build a reconstructor.
"Within a few minutes our ship will start dropping bombs.
It is possible you will be able to prevent explosions in your vi-
cinity. We will start, accordingly, on the other side of the
planet. If you stop us there, then we will assume we need
help. In six months of travelling at top acceleration, we can
reach a point where the nearest Ganae planet would hear our
messages. They will send a fleet so vast that all your powers
of resistance will be overcome. By dropping a hundred or a
thousand bombs every minute, we will succeed in devastating
every city so that not a grain of dust will remain of the skele-
tons of your people.
"That is our plan. So it shall be. Now, do your worst
to us who are at your mercy."
The man shook his head. "I shall do nothingnow!" he
said. He paused, then thoughtfully, "Your reasoning is fairly
accurate. Fairly. Naturally, I am not all powerful, but it seems
to me you have forgotten one little point. I won't tell you
what it is. And now," he said, "good day to you. Get back to
your ship, and be on your way. I have much to do."
Enash had been standing quietly, aware of the fury build-
ing up in him again. Now, with a hiss, he sprang forward,
suckers outstretched. They were almost touching the smooth
fleshwhen something snatched at him.
He was back on the ship.
He had no. memory of movement, no sense of being dazed
or harmed. He was aware of Veed and Yoal and Captain
Goisid standing near him as astonished as he himself. Enash
remained very still, thinking of what the man had said:
"... Forgotten one little point." Forgotten? That meant they
knew. What could it be? He was still pondering about it when
Yoal said:
"We can be reasonably certain our bombs alone will not
work."
They didn't.
Forty light-years out from Earth, Enash was summoned to
the council chambers. Yoal greeted him wanly. "The mon-
ster is aboard."
The thunder of that poured through Enash, and with it
came a sudden comprehension. "That was what he meant we
had forgotten," he said finally, aloud and wonderingly. "That
he can travel through space at will within a limitwhat was
the figure he once usedof ninety light-years."
He sighed. He was not surprised that the Ganae, who had
to use ships, would not have thought immediately of such a
possibility. Slowly, he began to retreat from the reality. Now
that the shock had come, he felt old and weary, a sense of
his mind withdrawing again to its earlier state of aloofness. It
required a few minutes to get the story. A physicist's assistant,
on his way to the storeroom, had caught a glimpse of a man
in a lower corridor. In such a heavily manned ship, the
wonder was that the intruder had escaped earlier observa-
tion. Enash had a thought.
"But after all we are not going all the way to one of our
planets. How does he expect to make use of us to locate it
if we only use the video" be stopped. That was it, of
course. Directional video beams would have' to be used, and
the man would travel in the right direction the instant contact
was made.
Enash saw the decision in the eyes of his companions, the
only possible decision under the circumstances. And yet, it
seemed to him they were missing some vital point. He
walked slowly to the great video plate at one end of the
chamber. There was a picture on it, so sharp, so vivid, so
majestic that the unaccustomed mind would have reeled as
from a stunning blow. Even to him, who knew the scene, there
came a constriction, a sense of unthinkable vastness. It was a
video view of a section of the milky way. Four hundred mil-
lion stars as seen through telescopes that could pick up the
light of a red dwarf at thirty thousand light-years.
The video plate was twenty-five yards in diametera scene
that had no parallel elsewhere in the plenum. Other galaxies
simply did not have that many stars.
Only one in two hundred thousand of those gloving suns
had planets.
That was the colossal fact that compelled them now to an
irrevocable act. Wearily, Enash looked around him.
"The monster has been very clever," he said quietly. "If we
go ahead, he goes with us, obtains a reconstructor, and re-
' turns by his method to his planet. If we use the directional
beam, he flashes along it, obtains a reconstructor, and again
reaches his planet first. In either event, by the time our fleets
arrived back here, he would have revived enough of his kind
to thwart any attack we could mount."
He shook his torso. The picture was accurate, he felt sure,
but it still seemed incomplete. He said slowly, "We have one
advantage now. Whatever decision we make, there is no lan-
guage machine to enable him to learn what is it. We can carry
out our plans without his knowing what they will be. He knows
that neither he nor we can blow up the ship. That leaves
us one real alternative."
It was Captain Gorsid who broke the silence that followed.
"Well, gentlemen, I see we know our minds. We will set the
engines, blow up the controls, and take him with us."
They looked at each other, race pride in their eyes. Enash
touched suckers with each in turn.
An hour later, when the heat was already considerable,
Enash had the thought that sent him staggering to the com-
municator, to call Shuri, the astronomer. "Shun," he yelled,
"when the monster first awakenedremember Captain Gorsid
had difficulty getting your subordinates to destroy the locators.
We never thought to ask them what the delay was. Ask them
... ask them"
There was a pause, then Shuri's voice came weakly over
the roar of the static. "They. . . couldn't. . . get. . . into the...
room. The door was locked."
Enash sagged to the floor. They had missed more than one
point, he realized. The man had awakened, realized the situa-
tion; and, when he vanished, he had gone to the ship, and
there discovered the secret of the locator and possibly the secret
of the reconstructorif he didn't know it previously. By the
time he reappeared, he already had from them what he
wanted. All the rest must have been designed to lead them
to this act of desperation.
In a few moments, now, he would be leaving the ship,
secure in the knowledge that shortly no alien mind would
know his planet existed. Knowing, too, that his race would
live again, and this time never die.
Enash staggered to his feet, clawed at the roaring com-
municator, and shouted his new understanding into it. There
was no answer. It clattered with the static of uncontrollable
and inconceivable energy. The heat was peeling his armoured
hide as he struggled to the matter transmitter. It flashed at
him with purple flame. Back to the communicator he ran
shouting and screaming.
He was still whimpering into it a few minutes later when
the mighty ship plunged into the heart of a blue-white sun.
Wyszukiwarka
Podobne podstrony:
Van Vogt, AE Recruiting Station
Van Vogt, AE More Than Superhuman
Van Vogt, AE Recruiting Station
Van Vogt, AE The Seesaw
Van Vogt, AE The Battle of Forever
Van Vogt, AE Destination Universe Anthology
Van Vogt, AE The World of Null A
Van Vogt, AE Short Stories
Van Vogt, AE Slan
Van Vogt, AE The Monster
Van Vogt, AE The Witch
Van Vogt, AE The Book of Ptath
Van Vogt, AE Creature
Van Vogt, AE Ersatz Eternal
Van Vogt, AE Clane of Linn 2 The Barbarian
Van Vogt, AE Enchanted Village
Van Vogt, AE The Rull
Van Vogt, AE The Best of AE van Vogt
Van Vogt, AE Asylum
więcej podobnych podstron